Vanguard
by karrenia
Summary: Interdimensional travel is always a tricky business, and even more so when its complicated by the presence of a hostile force. Crossover between Andromeda and Stargate SG1.
1. Chapter 1

-1Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and all related producers; and does not belong to me. Stargate SG-1/Andromeda crossover prompt #001 Beginnings written for crossovers100

For Want of a Nail series

Chapter 1

**Vanguard by Karen**

They only have a fraction of a second before the ship would become engulfed in heat and fire of an exploding sun going nova. The fact that it had been a calculated risk in order to escape from the Gou'ald Armada under the command of the System Lord, Anubis, certainly didn't improve matters much. Carter and her father had come up with the plan, and Colonel Jack O'Neill could never be entirely certain if that idea had surfaced in the thought processes and consciousness of the man that Jacob Carter had once been before he willingly became the host of the Tok'ra symbiont Selmak.

Sam's opinion aside, Jack had had a lot of experiences when it came to people possessed by the snaky aliens, a large percentage of those experiences falling into the category of all bad- so O'Neil figured he would hold out a final decision on the subject.

He was fond of every so often spouting occasional lines from popular Earth culture; he recalls a particular scene from an old Earth movie where the character of Captain Kirk on the eve of an important peace treaty negotiation records in his ship's log:

"He had never trusted Klingons, never has and never will all because they killed his boy. Jack can relate. He's been there, and the pain of that loss is still with him; he likens the numb feeling to getting a limb shot off in the middle of a firefight, like he's seen back during his stint with the Airforce and various black ops mission. It's called a phantom pain, technically, even with the missing limb gone, he's heard stories of old service buddies saying how they can still feel a tingling in their arms like the limb was still attached.

Meanwhile Sam and her father were down in the engineering part of their appropriated Death Glider fiddling with the multihued crystalline control rods that provided power to the ship.

"What's our status?" Sam asked.

"Peachy keen, jelly bean."

"I meant the ship, Dad."

"Does the term hunk of junk mean anything to you," Jacob Carter replied. "I know you did, Sam, but if we're about to buy it, I think I'm entitled to a little levity. If nothing else to know that we went out in a blaze of glory."

"Dad, I understand how you feel, but right now I could really use less levity and more technical skill," Sam frowned. "Which of these rods do we pull in what order to make this plan work?"

"Hang on a sec, I'll have to consult my other half." Jacob Carter closed his eyes, concentrating on the other presence in his mind, consulting the Tok'ra symbiont Selmak.

When he opened his eyes again his voice had changed and he provided the information that Sam need to get both the engines back up to full speed and the power distributed from the depleted shields to the transporter, just enough and in time to notify the others on the bridge that it was time to go and they could make it to the large ship passing by.

They needed to get far enough away to avoid capture and detection by their Gou'ald attackers.

Beka Valentine trotted at a fast clip across and down through the decks of her freighter.

The Eureka Maru is currently docked in the Andromeda's spacious landing bay. The heels of her leather boots made loud clomping noises in counterpoint to her muttering about how some people didn't understand the first thing about privacy.

Beka considered whether or not to make an issue of the fact that Dylan Hunt, bless him and his single-minded good-doer attitude always seemed to make 'her' ship the front line of defense of any plan of attack. Not that she minded a whole lot it was just that she would like to be consulted before he put her life, limb and profits at stack, of course not just necessarily in that order.

"He better not have damaged create #8411. I've got a lot of credits invested in that collection."

Beka swung down the last rung of the ladder leading to the chambers that she used for storing her personal items when she stopped short by the glimpse of several shadows criss crossing at the rear of the chamber. Reacting on instinct and the fact she pulled out the laser gun she kept in its holster strapped to her waist. "Whoever you are, you just bought yourself a whole world of trouble," she yelled and leapt forward.

Beka 's forward advance was stopped short by the long metal cylinder of an unfamiliar weapon blocking her own weapon.

"I hope you're not planning on firing that," a male voice said. "We found a box of Earth CDs and we wondering if you had anything to play them on."

"Don't you dare touch those!" Beka hotly retorted, not in the least worried about the logic of the situation.

"We won't," Jacob Carter mildly added, "If you put down your weapon."

"I've got a better idea. You put yours down first."

"Fine."

"I guess you have the advantage of me." O'Neill took a look around the crowded cargo bay and then turned back to speak to her. "Allow me to introduce ourselves, I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill and the big guy in front of you is Teal'C, and the folks standing beside me are Major Samantha and Jacob Carter. We're just shy one mild-mannered anthropologist to make a complete set."

"Why should I care?" Beka shrugged.

"Because we've got every reason to believe he's most likely wandering around lose on this big ship of yours and we'd like to find him before he causes too much mischief,  
" O'Neill replied. "I think that's a reasonable arrangement, wouldn't you agree?"

"I don't have to like it, but okay, let's run with your theory for a while and see if it pans out," Beka replied. "And for the record, no one touches those CDs except for me, got it?"

"Got it, Ma'am." O'Neill grinned.

"Don't call me that," Beka muttered. "I look around for a woman that isn't me. You call me Captain Valentine, definitely not 'ma'am."

Elsewhere Daniel Jackson did not know quite what to make of the beautiful but deadly looking android holding a laser rifle on him. He was no stranger to such circumstances.

After all he had certainly being with the SG-1 team long enough to know how it felt to be under fire or face the business end of a deadly weapon, yet this was somehow different.

The fact that she was an artificial life form that looked and felt so much like a real living, breathing person certainly was not lost on him. "Care to explain your presence aboard my ship," she asked.

Daniel swallowed and gulped down dry taste in his mouth. "I'm sorry, we really didn't mean to come here, but our ship sustained quite a bit of damage and this was the only place that happened to be nearby we could reach in time before the whole thing blew up in our face."

Rommie considered this statement briefly, weighing the relative merits of veracity, her mind running through the various signs of whether the young blond human could be lying: all vitals signs, heart rate, pupil dilation, breathing and pulse feel into the category of 'he is telling the truth. Or at least as much of the truth as he believes safe to tell.'

Rommie took a step back and lowered the arm holding out the gun. With an almost inaudible command she contacted Captain Dylan Hunt who stood the late night watch on the Command Deck alerting him to the presence of the intruder and his companions.

Dylan Hunt regarded the intruder with a suspicious eye, considering his track record with folks boarding his ship with the intent to either seize or capture it, he certainly was not willing to take any chances.

"Mind telling me what the hell you're doing here?"

"I'm not here to cause any trouble, " Daniel Jackson replied. "If that's what you're thinking. The vessel I was on ran into a few obstacles and when our engines went boom, and this ship was the only one we could find. that's the truth."

"We?" That implies that there are others in your group. Where are they?" Dylan asked.

"That's the problem, I don't know." Daniel shrugged.

"Rommie, what do you make of this?" Dylan asked.

"He's telling the truth, Captain," Rommie replied. "He truly does not have any knowledge regarding the whereabouts of his fellow travelers. The thing that is perplexing is that when he gave his name, they are no known records in any of the ship's computer databases nor in those of the galactic ones we are able to reference."

"What is your name, young man?" Dylan asked, filing away the information for later reference.

"Daniel Jackson."

"Well, Mr. Jackson, for the sake of argument, let's say that you're telling the truth, and I believe you are. That would make you a stowaway, and normally I'd through you in the brig, but it seems you need help and I'm in the business of helping people."

"I'm no stowaway, at least not intentionally, I really could use some assistance in finding my friends. The technology we used to transfer from our ship to this one should have worked to bring us all to the same place. I don't think anything went wrong with the calculations, so maybe they just ended up in another part of the ship."

With a sub vocal command and a nod of his head Dylan ordered the three-dimensional representation of the Andromeda's avatar to appear on a nearby screen to the left and behind of where he stood by the pilot's chair. "Aside from the initial intruder alarm, no other unauthorized presence's have been detected, Sir."

The image on the screen furrowed her brow and titled her head to one side as if thinking something through. "The explosion of a sun going nova within 500 parsecs of our last known coordinates at 2200 hours when the alarm went off could have conceivably affected my sensors. That margin of error has been calculated at.00078 percent."

"A sun going nova?" Jackson echoed, puzzled. "That's what forced us to abandon our original ship and come here."

"Run a ship to stern diagnostic, Rommie," Dylan said, "If they all transported to the same coordinates, then they've got to be here somewhere." Turning his attention back to Daniel Jackson he added. "Relax, we'll find your friends. Don't worry about a thing. In the meantime I think you get some rest, it's a big ship but we'll find your friends."

"You mind if I withhold a final decision on that, because frankly I'm exhausted," Daniel said.

Much later Daniel is finally reunited with his friends.

"Well, well, look who's decided to rejoin us." Daniel smiled.

"Hey, pal, I'm not the one who was lost." O'Neill turned to Captain Hun who stood beside Rommie. "I would like apologize for any mischief he may have caused in our brief absence. "

"Hey, Jack, " Daniel protested. "I can take care of myself, you know."

"I know. I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," O'Neill began.

"Please, sir, that line got old after the half a hundredth time you've uttered it." Carter said.

"Well, then, I'll just have to come up with something else then."

"This might take a while, so let me outline the essential points," Sam began. "Are you telling me that we're no longer in our own universe?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Harper replied. "I'm not entirely certain how when the sun in your universe went nova affected the matter time stream at the exact same instant you engaged your transporter device, but instead of sending you to designated coordinates, and I guess it sent you here." He shrugged and scratched his head. "Funny how things work out, I mean, it could have been worse, you could have been reduced to your component particles."

"Not helping, Harper," Beka griped.

"There's one thing that I still don't understand," Jacob Carter said, "The odds of ending up in the wrong universe are pretty astronomical, but why this one?"

"There must be way a to return home to our own world," Teal'C said.

Sam felt everyone's stare on here," I got nothing. Yet."

"If we really did end up in another parallel or alternate reality, it stands to reason that its possible to return to our own," Daniel paused and considered the matter," I doubt that would recreate the circumstances that brought us here, though. It's not everyday that a sun goes nova."

Dylan coughed at the last sentence and tried to change the subject by saying: "No, but there might be other alternatives to consider."

"Look, I don't mean to complicate matters, but I need to know this," Harper asked. "What year is it? I mean in your timeline?"

"2006."

"I fail how the date of when we departed is of any significance," Teal'C said.

"Great, not only are they out of whack in terms of linear reality, they're also out of whack in terms of temporal reality." Harper sighed. "This complicate things."

"What do you mean by temporal reality!" Carter demanded.

"It means you've been hurtled forward almost 900 plus years into the future." Beka answered.

"What do you mean by 'complicates things'?" Jackson asked.

"Look, time travel just makes my head hurt, and I know what I'm talking about, they know what I'm talking about but we won't mention anything about what happened trying to make it work," Seamus Harper stated, pushing forward.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're from an alternate reality where the United States Air Force has access to a piece of alien tech that allows you to travel to distant galaxies?" Harper asked.

"Yes," Jack O'Neill replied. "The only problem with that is that occasionally while you're out exploring those galaxies you have encounters with those who are determined to be hostile. You make enemies."

"Hmm, Dylan, sounds familiar?" Beka smiled.

"Don't start, Beka." Dylan paused to consider O'Neill's statement.

The big fellow introduced as Telemachus Rhade waited and then added. "And sometimes those enemies come looking for you, correct? That said, I imagine that there is much that you are leaving out of your explanations Colonel O'Neill, and much that we would like to know, but I can admire your need to be circumspect."

"Got it in one, folks."

"Well, then, we'll have to come up with something," O'Neill grinned. "Look on the bright side, I doubt our enemies will never find us here, am I right?"

"Jack," Daniel sighed, "Sometimes you really are incorrigible."

Rommie and Trance, who up until this point had contributed very little to the conversation stepped forward and Rommie ordered up a schematic of a remote star system. "I might have the solution to your dilemma Colonel O'Neill. There is a world in this system referred to as Schroder's End. Located somewhere on the surface of the planet is rumored to be a quantum mirror, with it, it is said, one is able to travel between dimensions."

"If we find this mirror, we'll be able to go home." O'Neill grinned. "Well then, what are we waiting for. Let's go find it."

"Why didn't you ever mention this before," Dylan demanded.

Trance shrugged. "You never asked."

Dylan relented, the tension leaving the lines of his face, "Of course, I should have expected that response."

"We are set on this course of action, Sir?" Rhade asked Dylan.

"Yes. At this point I don't see any other alternatives, do you?" Dylan replied.

"No, Sir."

Carter darted a glance at Doctor Jackson saying without words that if the rumored quantum mirror was anything like the one back on their Earth that had been found on the ice in Antarctica, then it might well be their best shot, it also might be very dangerous. Daniel couldn't help remembering that the mirror back in their reality had been ordered destroyed by General Hammond, but not before it had managed to cause or rather be the root of a great deal of trouble.

"A tempest in a teapot, that's what we are, Sam,' Daniel thought, sharing her worried look,

"And I don't see our situation improving any time soon, do you, At least these people genuinely seem interested in helping us, but we can't afford to extend our trust too far, can we?' Daniel shoved the dark thoughts to the back of his mind and smiled reassuringly.

"Rommie, at our present course and speed, how long before we arrive at Schroeder's End?" Beka asked.

"Three days, two hours and 150 minutes," Rommie answered.

"Input the course correction, Captain Valentine, and take us out."

Beka left her spot beside Teal'C and strode forward to take a seat in the pilot's chair, squirmed around a bit to gain a comfortable position and then wrapped her hands around the controls. And engaged the engines. "You got it."


	2. Enigma

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Fireworks Productions and Tribune Entertainment, SG-1 belongs to MGM, Gekko Entertainment; they are not mine. The story picks up immediately after "Vanguard" in the For Want of a Nail Series.

"Enigma" by Karen

Trance wondered how she would explain how the presence of the five strangers from an alternate reality timeline would effect the outcome of the current shift in events among their own timeline. It was difficult enough knowing that Dylan Hunt who should have died over three hundred years ago when his ship became trapped on the edge of a event horizon of a black hole, should have died, but didn't affected the time stream.

Now she had five individuals representing a government from Old Earth that are no strangers to alternate dimensions wandering around with Beka trying to find a world where the it had been rumored a another quantum mirror was located.

With it they can return to their own time line. Trance has never much bothered with the scientific and fundamental laws of physics, which govern such events and spatial phenomena, she has always more of a feel your way as you go. After all it's the nature of her people. She knows that her friends and crew mates have accepted that about her, even before she underwent the abrupt change from her bubbly purple self to the more serious gold older incarnation.

Trance wanted to speak with Major Samantha Carter again, who oddly enough understands at least a little of Trance's problem is like, but Carter is a scientist and a soldier, which might limit her ability to think effectively enough outside of the box.

On the edge of the world designated as "Schroeder's End, Beka at the helm of the Eureka Maru sets down on the edge of an embankment, going through the final pre-landing checks and announcing their arrival to her passengers. Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter and Teal'C wait at the aft air lock while Seamus Harper gear up to go out and explore the planet.

Their first glimpse of the planet is not one that encourages a great deal of excitement. The planet has no name, only a numbered designation in the galactic database, and it's big, rocky, and gray, and holding only the bare minimum of the necessary mixtures of gases to make for a breathable atmosphere. They would not have even come here if Trance had not assured them that somewhere on the surface on the planet was a way to return their guests to their proper universe.

The rocky terrain crumbled and crunched under their booted feet, strung in a ragged line of two by two, with Captain Dylan Hunt leading the way, much to the grumbling disapproval of Colonel Jack O'Neill, who would have much preferred to be the one calling the shots.

After the first half-hour after being paired with him, and having to listen to his sarcastic comments, Captain Beka Valentine finally spun on her heel. Stepping into his direct line of sight the said: "Would you like us to split off from the main group so the you boys can hash it out?"

"Beka!'

"What? It's not like we've all suddenly been struck deaf and blind, the sooner this is over the better, we've got too many chiefs and not enough Indians, as Harper would say, so let's settle this." Beka said, balling her hands into fists and planting them on her hips.

Jack looked at the furious blond woman, mouth set in a grim, determined line, the wind blowing in from a northeasterly direction tousling her and blow subtle designs through the short chin-length strands, feet spread wide apart of the hard ground.

With not much effort on his part, suddenly he remembered that they were all depending on the good graces of the crew of the Andromeda to find them a way to get back home. An unconscious moves on his part and he felt the weight of his bad mood lift from his shoulders. "All right, all right, you're in charge, Captain Hunt. I guess it only makes sense, because right now you're the one with the most knowledge of the given situation. "Lead the way."

Several hours into the march, Daniel Jackson wondered if their new friends knew exactly where they were going if they were only wandering around in circles. He turned to Sam and said: "I could have sworn we'd passed by that same patch of scraggly scrub grass a no more than half an hour ago." He raised one hand to point out a clump that poked up out of the hard-packed ground like the bristly hair of a rock troll buried underneath the surface. "I don't like this situation any more than you do, Daniel, but we will all have to be more paitent."

"I am trying to be patient, but it's not working very well," Daniel replied.

"I know," Sam smiled. "I'm still turning over and over in my mind of any possibly way that we could have missed, that no Gate exists in this universe."

"If it did, could we try and send a message back to our folks back home?"

"I have one question," Teal'C said, suddenly, "Why do they call this planet Schroeder's End?"

"It's the short version of the name," Harper answered. "What is everyone staring at, I actually did learn something about this stuff, you know. I'm not just some glorified grease monkey, thank you for much." Harper sniffed if half-hearted offended dignity and resumed telling the SG-1 team the rest of the story of how the planet got its name.  
"A lot of folk, colleagues it's said, thought Schrodinger a genius, an eccentric genius, but his theories were dismissed as being too impractical."

"Figures," Jackson mutterd.

"He theorized that a kind of gateway existed, or could be created that would link alternate realties and universe together. " Harper shuffled his booted feet and kicked at a loose rock in frustration, "of course this all happened over three hundred years ago before the fall of the Commonwealth."

"What became of the good doctor?" Sam asked.

"Don't know, he got tenured, was told to behave and stop any more dangerous research into proving or disproving the existence of alternate universes, and died an old man." Harper finished, shrugging his shoulders to adjust the fall of the pack on his shoulders.

"As I said, that's all I was able to get from the ship's computer library before we set out on this crazy mission, but how the planet got named after him, I haven't the foggiest."

Sam turned to look at Trance and ask her, but she had a look on her face that either meant she was in deep thought, merely physically present, but her mind far away.

The others seemed content to leave her undisturbed, so Sam wondered if she should say anything. The debate became a moot point when she realized the terrain was gradually sloping downward, and the light in the sky above began to from a dull slate gray to a faint purple, and the first stars glimmered, pinpricks of light in configurations that she had never seen before. Sam looked up and was startled when Trance suddenly broke her self-imposed silence:

"We've arrived," Trance whispered, breaking the sudden, hushed awkward silence.

"Exactly where is here?" Doctor Jackson asked, taking his glasses off and rubbing the grit and dirt from them as best he could with the hem of his shirt.

"Why not ask the entity yourself?" Trance replied, in a very reasonable tone, as if it were the most natural thing to do.

"Indeed," a deep male voice echoed the source of the voice difficult to isolate from the sound of the wind.

In front of them stood a pair of marble pillars, and between those pillars, a boulder with its center hollowed out to form a kind of natural doorway stood on end. Swirling in the center of the gaping hole was much like staring into the swirling eddies of an ocean, constantly moving, constantly changing. As Daniel Jackson moved closer, with Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill and Teal'C brought up the rear, Daniel realized that the images were not just a blur of color and motion, they were actual scenes of places at the same time familiar and unfamiliar; it was a disorienting sensation..

"What are you machine or living being?" Beka asked.

"I am neither a machine, nor a sentient being, by the terms that you know. I, merely, " the voice paused, as if thinking over the question or its response, or both, then it replied. "I am."

"Welcome, travelers, I am the Guardian of Forever," the deep voice that had responded to Trance's initial question intoned. "What brings you here, though you should be aware, long ago, longer than any of you can possibly imagine, a great Race went through me to another Age."

"Could it be?" Carter whispered. "Maybe this is where the Ancients started from!"

"I think that's stretching things a bit, Carter," Jack O'Neill replied. "Still, it would be an awfully big coincidence, if it were true." If this thing is for real, and we've not all been played for fools, then you're certain we can just ask this ah, "guardian' to show us the way home, back to our own universe, right?"

"Essentially, that is correct, Colonel O'Neill."

"Lovely, a quantum mirror, but this one has a personality." I could do without the personal touch," he muttered under his breath.

"So, we just ask it to find the proper coordinates for our universe, and we step through the doorway?" Sam asked.

"More or less" Trance shrugged.

"I feel so much better now," Jack sighed. "Somehow, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

For long moments they weighed the pros and cons of using this alien piece of technology to get home, the entity began to sift through various images at is disposal, somehow knowing how to tailor them to its present visitors, showing the mountain that was Cheyenne Mountain base, home of the Star Gate Command, people that they knew, some living, some dead. The transition between events and times moved as fluidly as the cascading rush of a waterfall plunging down a steep cliff. It was too dizzying to watch and make resembled a logical coherent whole, Daniel thought, while trying to follow the shifts made his head hurt, and took his attention off the images long enough to put his glasses back on.

The liquid images were backlit with a faint tinge of purple and silver, like a matte black frame of a painted canvas.

"What the hell, we've come this far, I say we go for it," Jack finally decided. "I'm not making it order, folks, so it's up to you if you want to go through with it."

"We're with you, Sir," Sam replied immediately.

"Ditto," Doctor Jackson added and Teal'c merely nodded his acknowledgement.

"Before we go, I just have one question, when we get back, will anyone on the other side be aware that we were gone, or that any changes took place?" Sam asked.

"Doubtful, but the probability does exist." Trance answered. "There is no such thing as a perfect possible future, or in your case," she shrugged, and offered the SG-1 team members a faint smile, 'a perfect, possible past. Although, sometimes I do wish that it were.

"Huh?" Daniel said, unable for the moment, to come up with anything more coherent. Not for the for the first time since he'd met the woman known only as Trance Gemini, she had managed to utterly flummox him with her contradictions, on the surface seem to make perfect sense to her. However, her crewmembers didn't seem to mind, or had learned how to take them in stride.

"Great, just great, well then if we're all decided, let's do this." Jack sighed.

"For the record, thank you for getting us this far, we would never have known about this without your help," Carter said, turning to face Captain Hunt and his crew.

"You are welcome." Dylan smiled.

Jack stepped forward, shoulders hunched as if unconsciously expecting a blow or some kind of protective force field that would hinder any forward movement or intrusion through the doorway, he was only a little disappointed when he encountered little or no resistance from the Guardian.

'This was very different', to his way of thinking, 'from stepping through the wormhole created by a star gate.' He had one foot at the threshold of the doorway when he swiveled his head around and turned to look back at the crew of the Andromeda. "Thanks, for everything." With that he turned around and stepped through the gateway the others only a short step behind him, and then everything disappeared in a breathy but surprisingly little heat and light.

Continued in part 3: How the Other Half Lives


	3. How the Other Half Lives

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corp, Renaissance Pictures, Glasner/Wright Productions, it is not mine. Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions; it is not mine. Note: Picks up shortly after where "Enigma ended. Written for 100 situations prompt #11 behind.

"How the Other Half Lives" by Karen

Anticipation mixed with relief always made Colonel Jack O'Neill a wee bit anxious upon his return from a mission; sure he would still be riding high on sheer energy and determination mixed with adrenaline but there would always be exhaustion that followed closely on the heels off that energy.

He felt a real sense of responsibility for the people under his command and so, in addition to his own well-being, getting them home in one piece had to be a top priority. 

O'Neill still felt a little uncertainty at what to make of the crew of the strange alien ship that they had encountered on the other side of the wormhole. 

Sure, he and other members of the SG-1 team, in the years that they had been on the Star Gate Program, had more than their fair share of experiences with alternate universes, as he strolled down the metal ramp that lead from the gate iris and down to the ground floor, O'Neill made a mental note to check with the Asgard, Thor, if he had ever heard of anything to do with the Andromeda Ascendant.

Jack nodded an affable greeting to soldier, flanked by General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser, some standing, some kneeling with guns hoisted. 

Jack had become an experienced campaigner so the sight of armed and heavily armored folk aiming the business end of a military issue rifle in his general direction no longer fazed him. For their parts, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Carter's father, Jacob, seemed to find the assembled armed soldiers nothing more than business as usual. 

Teal'C, while Jack knew better, seemed to exhibit little in the way of emotion, squared up his shoulders the muscles underneath the fabric of his flak jack and loose cotton undershirt bunching up. 

Something was clearly bothering him, but Jack figured that whatever it was could wait until they got to the post op mission briefing with General Hammond.

"There's some one in the isolation ward just off medical bay two, that I think you should speak with as soon as we're done here," Hammond said, after he'd personally welcomed back each member of SG-1 and Jacob Carter. "Aside from that, I except a full report of how the military engagement against Apophis' fleet went, but that can wait until we clear up another matter."

"I hate when he starts off conversations like that," Jack muttered.

"I expect that you would, Colonel O'Neill," Hammond replied, a slight fondly amused while still attempting to appear stern twitchy the corners of his mouth upwards.

"I aim to please," O'Neill retuned without missing a beat.

"When you and SG-1 disappeared off the radar of all our convention tracking systems, " Hammond added. "Let's just say that we here back at base got worried, and when we lost communication with you, I thought to myself, worst case scenario."

"It's gonna be one of those weird ones, Sir," O'Neill replied. "As you know we were in the midst of a fire fight with Anubis's ships, the sun was about to go nova, and well, I thought that our number was up."

"Except that it wasn't, call it sheer luck, call deus ex machina," Major Samantha Carter added, but either we got luck or there really is something out there in the big universe that looks after fools, madmen and space explorers, but we ended up in a parallel universe."

Hammond sighed and shrugged his solid shoulders. "Do tell." I hope it's not the kind of parallel universe where we end losing to the Gou'ald and or the Star Gate Program gets shut down for lack of funding."

"No, none of those worst-case scenarios," Doctor Daniel Jackson said. "This one parallel dimension where the locals have never even heard of either the Stargate or the Gou'ald. It's as if, if I may venture a theory, a parallel dimension that spun off and created its own time space continuum."

"Sir, what Daniel is trying to say: O'Neill added, is that we may have found a dimension that is separate and independent of any we have found thus far."

"They did help us get home, seeing as how we were cut off any nearby star gates," Daniel added, thinking of the sentient rock formation that claimed it to be the ancestor of the inter-galactic technology that had made it possible to travel across distant and far-flung light years possible, the Guardian of Forever, and the odd but oddly reassuring girl that had lead them towards its source. Trance Gemini, odd name for a very odd girl.

He almost missed her, almost, being the operative word. 

After all, the mission comes first and not to be jeopardized or side tracks for a certain archaeologist and linguist to satisfy his curiosity while he unraveled an enigma wrapped up in a riddle. If he had, Jack would have had his proverbial and given him the benefit of a few choice words while he was at it," Daniel smiled at the mental image and then shoved it to the back of his mind while he turned his concentration to what was being discussed around the conference table.

Much later

In the isolation ward of the Med Lab, Doctor Janet Fraiser stood near her computer screen tracking the displays and the readouts on the screen a puzzled frown creasing the lines in her brow. It wasn't so much difficult as it was odd. The object of her puzzlement is currently seated atop the exam table with her legs crossed in a classic mediation pattern of a lotus flower, her eyes are closed while she gently inhales and exhales.

At the moment, Janet Fraise, for a few fractions of a second, almost envies that studied clam, in a back corner of her mind, she thought "No one is that calm and relaxed unless they think they have everything under control, or worse, they don't. Okay, doc, think, how do you want to play this?'

Trance Gemini is not entirely certain how and why she had appeared here of all places, but she figured that her older counterpart, Gold Trace had had something to do with it. 

Switching places with her older and supposedly wiser self, had seemed like a good idea at the time, but then she had not really stopped to consider what might happen after that. "That's the problem with hindsight, it gives you perfect vision when it's too late to do anything about it," Trance muttered aloud, attracting Dr. Fraiser's attention.

"Good, you're awake," she said. "I'm just going to run a few tests, it won't take a moment, and then we'll need to ask you a few questions, okay?"

"Okay," Trance nodded.

"Let's start with your name, shall we?"

"Trance Gemini.

"Good, age and planet of origin," You realize that I have to ask these questions as part of medical procedure, right?"

Trance nodded, "I understand, I've had to serve as acting medical officer aboard my own ship, when we first started out, because let's just way we were short handed."

"How old did you say you were?"

"I didn't, uh, old enough to know better." Trance is entirely certain that she wants to tell the doctor how old she is mainly because she isn't sure of the figure herself, she is younger than her adult golden counterpart, and in a dark corner of her mind, she remembers the old man who had attempted to learn a few of her secrets by force; it's a painful memory that she would rather not revisit, so he concentrates on answering Dr. Fraiser's questions as best that she can.

"Whatever that means, where did you come from?" Fraiser continued, tapping the nib of the pen against the hard cardboard of her clipboard that she held in one hand.

"Another galaxy, and I seem to be a bit lost at this point," said Trance with a tremulous little small. " I think I got mistakenly left behind."

Interlude

In her mind's eye Trance can see the smoke and fire and confusion that enveloped the various decks of Beka Valentine's ship, the Eureka Maru she can tell without having to concentrate that the crew is in a fight for their lives. The door that she came through is groaning from the stress of weapons fire and something more. Sometimes, Trance wishes that her ability to see bits and pieces of all and any perfect possible futures would simply go away. In the moments when she thinks this, Trance wonders if she and her brothers and sisters, if such they can be called that, where the living versions of the old Earth legend of Pandora's Box, after all the bad stuff was let out of the box by mere chance and curiosity, whatever was left in the box, was hope. 

"Hope?

Trance is normally a bubbly, cheerful person, and she loves her crew mates and friends aboard the Andromeda, so the thought of never seeming them again is eroding that cheerful happy personality. She doesn't exactly know exactly where 'here' is, but it's better by far when she stops to consider that she could have ended up in limbo, or back in the heart of exploding star going nova, on the other side of the dimensional barrier. "Damn," Trance muttered, as Mr. Harper would have said, that's how I got into this mess in the first place."

"Trance, do you mind if I call you by your first name?" Dr. Fraiser asked, as she sat at her terminal keying in all of the raw data that she had acquired from the tests and some of her own speculations about their new visitor. " I'm going to have t General Hammond and the SG-1 team come and continue with the questioning, if that's all right with you."

"That's fine," Trance nodded encouragingly, "We've met before."

"What is 'she' doing here?" Carter demanded, upon her first glimpse of the person on the other side of the glass in the isolation ward.

"You know her?" Dr. Fraiser asked, keying open the entry way from her touch pad and letting them members of the SG-1 and General Hammond into the room.

Maybe it's the purple skin tone, and maybe it's the look in her eyes, a look that it's better for him to concentrate on rather than the look in the eyes of the android AI, that had captured when they first arrived aboard the Andromeda Ascendant, that one had been eerie and very intimidating. Trance, on the other hand, well, she was interesting, and very approachable. " Hello, Trance," Daniel greeted her.

"Hello, Dr. Jackson," Trance replied. "I imagine my presence here is as much as a surprise to you as it is to me."

"What are you doing here," O'Neill asked, and the way he phrased it made it sound more of a demand than a question.

"Cooling my heels, I believe is the proper expression," Trance grinned. "For lack of a better explanation, that I realized is a not an adequate response, but it's the best I can come up with at the moment."

"Were you ever this vague with your fellow crewmates?" asked Teal'C with a frown furrowing his brow the gold sigil on his forehead given a peculiar silhouette from the effort.

"Yes, well," Trance thought it over, "I think that given enough time, they've come to accept that as a part of my nature."

"And what would that nature be?" Carter asked, curious in spite of herself, for the duration of their visit to the alternate dimension./ While she herself had not had much contact with Trance Gemini, but from the reactions of her the other SG-1 members, she knew that the girl had a lot more going on with her than met the eye.

"Chronically vague," Trance replied, mastering a sudden urge to burst out in a fit of giggles.

"How very illuminating, and hardly helpful," O'Neill groaned and mock-rolled his eyes.

"Look, I know she and her friends helped us leave their universe, and get back home to our own, I think it's entirely possible that, something similar happened here," Dr. Jackson added.

"What do you want here?" O'Neill asked.

"A little help from my friends?" Trance promptly replied and the flashed her most winsome and reassuring smile.

Jackson returned the smile. " I think we should help her, I mean, it's only fair, seeing as how they helped us."

Continued in chapter 4: Hail the Conquering Hero


	4. Hail the Conquering Hero

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions. Stargate SG-1 belongs to MGM Productions, Gekko Film Corporation, and other associated producers and creators; which is to say they are not mine, never will be.  
The energy space tunnel was a concept used in the Season 3 episode "The Lone and Level Sands." on Andromeda. 

Notes: The story takes into consideration a hiatus between where the previous story ⌠How the Other Half Lives■ left off.

"Hail the Conquering Hero" by Karen

"At times, Colonel O'Neill, I despair of your common sense listening to your well-intentioned drive to play hero," General Hammond shook his head, and then spared a speculative look at their newest guest.

The fact that she had not arrived via the iris of the Gate, was itself a mystery, add to that, that her presence her indicated that parallel universes did indeed exist, were not comforting thoughts.

After all, he had an entire base and its personnel and its mission to safeguard here, and his best field operatives SG-1 were all for running into another situation with little or no intelligence on which to base it.

Trance glanced from one serious face to another, empathizing with the problem presented before her new friends, and the obvious need for a decision to be made at what to do with her sudden appearance in their midst.

"Let me assure you, General Hammond, I mean no harm to any one on this base, in fact, I would appreciate any assistance that you could offer me."

"Miss Gemini," Hammond began before Trance said with a wink and a smile.

"Please, I know you are either being polite or going within the confines of your planet's military protocol, but, please, call me Trance." She offered a tight,wry little smile. "All of my friends do."

"Very well, Trance it is. Hammond, in spite of the serious nature of the discussion returned her tight wry smile.

"These friends of yours, where are they and how do we find them?"

Hammond turned to Major Sammantha Carter, I do hope that it does mean having to repeat the set of circumstances that led up to your previous disappearance from the known galaxy."

"I should hope not, Sir," Major Carter replied. "Although, I must say, from what we did manage to observe on our previous visit, this is the first alternate reality where we did not have parallel counterparts to contend with. That one wrinkle that I never could quite wrap me head around."

With a lift of one heavily-lined kohl-painted eyebrow Teal'C offered his opinion of the last statement. "Indeed."

"A man of few words," Trance observed.

"Oh, don't worry," Colonel O'Neill remarked. After several years serving on the Stargate Program under the command of General Hamond Jack O'Neill knew just how far he could push the envelope when it came to wise-cracks and off-the-cuff sarcasm.  
"Get him drunk or mad enough, Teal'c can be quite lively and boisterous."

"Uh, Jack," Doctor Daniel Jackson finally added. "I don't think you should go there, if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, yeah,■ O'Neill muttered waving one hand in the air. Daniel, I get it already. So are we helping Trance or not?"

"I may live to regret this, but you and your team have a go," Hammond sighed. "The question is where are you going?"

"What planet did you say you were from again, Trance?"

"Somewhere near the planetary core of the solar system, originally."

Trance sighed, realizing that even in her own universe the chances of reaching the original home world of the Systems Commonwealth, were slim to none. None, in the last three hundred years in her universe'ss timeline.

Even the best pilot in the known galaxy could not reach Tarn Vedra, and of those who had tried, failed, went mad, or perished in the attempt. Beka and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant had tried and due to circumstances beyond their control had been forced to make the difficult of turning back, both for the crew and the ship's safety, as well as for the well-being of Captain Beka Valentine.

Trance sighed, of course she could not very well tell them that Tarn Vedra was not actually her home world, but that of her captain, Dylan Hunt, her people'ss home world had gone nova at the time that Tarn Vedra vanished from all known star charts and navigable slip stream corridors.

"Even if its at all possible. We're looking for a ship not a planet."

"It's a big universe, er, universes," Daniel said. "How do you expect us to find one ship out in the big black galaxy?"

"It is a very big ship."

"Yeah, I remember," Daniel replied, thinking back to how he had been accosted by the very attractive and very strong female android and dragged all over that very same gigantic ship. "I wouldn't mind getting a closer look at what makes it tick."

"I think we could arrange that," Trance replied. "However, you might have to take that up with Rommie. She might take offense at anyone poking around in her core memory. Harper was nearly killed the first time he tried to interface with the ship."

"Do you think Mr. Harper might teach me how to do that?" Doctor Jackson asked, intrigued by the possibility of interfacing with a star ship, not to mention that the Andromeda's avatar, but he was not going to say that out loud, at least not within the hearing of his commanding officer and fellow teammates.

Trance caught the undertone but politely chose to ignore it. "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how he's feeling at the moment.

"Great, just great," O'Neill muttered, "Okay, kids, can we focus on the task at hand. How are we going to go about doing any of this?"

"Another spatial anomaly?" Carter offered. "That seemed to do the trick the last time."

"Sounds like a plan to me," O'Neill smiled.

Meanwhile in that alternate universe

Gold Trance crept around the corner of the wall that separated the main hallway from the engine room, Harper had managed to remove the wall panels and was crouched down half in and half-out of the wall tinkering with wires and tools.

"Harper, may I speak with you?"

"NO, go away. I'm busy," he curtly replied.

"I can see that. This won't take but a minute and then I'll leave you to your work."

Gold Trance stepped forward and crawled over to where he sat, staring despondently at the pile of discarded broken wiring on the floor beside him. "It wouldn't hurt if you took a break now and then. I'm certain Dylan will understand that the repairs to the ship will take a little bit longer than a few days."

"I'm a engineer and a genius, I should be able to figure this out, not sit here twiddling my thumbs."

"Harper, we were friends before I, well, changed, but I need to talk to you."

"So, talk," he replied with a heavy sigh.

"Why are you avoiding me?" she asked.

"I've got work to do."

Harper shifted his position and half-heartedly pretended to lash out at the broken wiring and metal wall panels with one foot, trying to avoid meeting his old friend new golden-tinted gaze.

"That's not it, or at least that's the easy glib response.

"You could always see right through me."

"Well, yes, but you do make it difficult sometimes," Trance smiled.

"That's the problem," Harper replied.

"This avoidance, might it have anything to do with the attack on the Andromeda,? Trance asked. "It's me? It's because I've changed."

"Yeah, you could say that," Harper sighed.

"Hey, Trance, don'tt suppose you'd do me the favor of changing back, you know, back to your old self, hmm?" Harper cajoled, some of the former bounce and devil-may-care attitude back in place in the lines of his expressive face.

"Truth to tell, Seamus Zelanzy Harper. Trance smiled, this one a more genuine reminder of the old purple self. ⌠I do not even know if that is even possible at this point."

"I guess," Harper replied. "Since we're being all honest and stuff, truth is I still can't wrap my head around it. I mean, I know it's you, I mean the real you, if that sounds completely insane, but it's still not the you I know and care about."

Trance felt moisture welling up at the corners of her eyes, not certain if she should be sad at the pain one of her closest friends was obviously going through or angry, that he could not as readily accept the change as the others had. In the back of her mind, 'Why is this so difficult for him.' Aloud all she said was. "I am sorry."

"Don't be," Harper replied. "It's just that... it's hard for me to accept it.. I think I'm more angry that it came out of nowhere.I'm just going to need more time to get accustomed to the change, okay?"

"Okay," Trance replied, feeling a bit more reassure that at last one thing aboard the Andromeda was more or less back on track. As she left the Machine Shop and Harper to resume his repair work, she realized, that it would be all a matter of time, time had a way of twisting things around in their favor of their disadvantage.

She was going to have do something about that. As she strode down the corridors to get back to her garden, Trance sighed.

"I just wish I knew what that I knew what that elusive 'something' was. I think everyone around here would be much happier."

October 5, Present Day

At the Cheyenne Mountain Base the base intercom sputtered to life and all those assembled in the holding area could hear the voice of the gate room technician, Walter, announce the activation of the gate and request permission to open the iris.

"Incoming gate arrival, the id signal matches that of SG-7."

"Copy that. Permission granted to open the iris."

Cuchlain, one of the system lords. What the hell does he want?" O'Neill griped under his breath.

"Telemachus Rahde?" Trance whispered, not only astonished by his appearance but also but the costume had had affected. The last time she had seen him had been on the planet where descendants of the original High Guard officers and crew, men and women, had not only survived but thrived.

"You know this guy?" Carter asked in an undertone to Trance.

Trance shook her head to clear it of the inevitable cobwebs, suddenly wishing very much that she had no so readily agreed to switch places with her older, golden counterpart during the attack that had stranded her at the Cheyenne Mountain Base. Her memories were fuzzy and she very much wanted to back aboard the Andromeda, in her arboretum, tending her bonsai plants, the future, any and all possible futures, that had been for so long a part of very nature, were at the moment, a big gray blur.

Trance blinked and reached up and the rubbed her eye sockets with the back of her hands.  
"Are you all right?" Carter asked, reaching out to hold her steady when it looked as if she were about to toppled over onto the shiny metal floor of the Gate Room.

The man in the plate armor and the bronze chess plate that appeared to Trance as resembling something out of the ancient Earth Roman gladiatorial arenas, snapped his head around to stare at here, not rudely, but in curious appraisal.

"I don not believe we have met," he remarked. His voice was a deep baritone, but with a surususs of a deeper yet distinct undertone, not hostile, but as if he had provided his own personal echo when he spoke.

"Trance, Trance Gemini. Forgive me if this rather forward of me, but I couldn'tt help noticing that you resembled someone I know."

In the back of her mind Trance could not help but make a silent tally of both how much and how little he resembled his counterpart in her home dimension. It was uncanny, and she wondered if she should be more concerned about the possible ramifications of his presence, and if not, why?

"Indeed," he replied. "I am Chuchlain."

"Okay, folks," Colonel O'Neill broke into the conversation aware without having to be told that something untoward was going on, between Trance and Cuchlian, and whatever it was, innocent or not, he had best put a stop to it. "Pleasantries aside, we've got work to do."

"Agreed. What do you want?" Hammond asked the big man.

"I want many things,■ Cuchlain rumbled, for the nonce I have come here to deliver a warning. He glanced around at the uniformed and armed soldiers that stood or knelt at attention in the Gate Room.

"Perhaps we should take this conversation to somewhere a little less noisy?"

Chuchlain did not know what to make of the purple girl, she was not a member of the SG-1, yet somehow, perhaps in a former life before the blending of his host with the alien parasite that shared both his mind and body; he had known her or someone much liker her. She appeared harmless, but in way that he could not have explained, he felt that were layers within layers of meaning behind this wide, alert and beautiful purple eyes.

Cuchlain had spent enough time in the company of SG-1 and their commanding officer to pick up a few of the quaint sayings of the species. "Greetings, Hammond, Cuchlain replied, drawing his fascinated gaze away from the young purple-skinned girl with the tail with an almost audible snap of a broken connection.

Trance was told to wait outside in the guard of an armed but kind-looking Air Force junior officer.

Meanwhile, relocated to one of the many long rooms that served as the humans conference room, Chuchlain took the seat that Hammond offered him as Hammond took the seat at the head of the table, and rest of the SG-1 team spread out among the remaining chairs.

With waiting for any prompt to begin, Chuchlain began with: "Not that long ago, if you recall, you offered your services as mediators among the various warring factions of the System Lords."

"I remember," O'Neill interrupted.

"As do I," Teal'C rumbled in agreement. "This had best not be a foolhardy attempt to cozen us into some agenda known only to you."

"A reasonable concern," the big man murmured, "And if I were in your place, I too would harbor those same concerns. Let us be candid., there is little time, and I came hear as an ally, to warn you."

"Out of the kindness of your heart," Carter muttered under her breath.

"I do not have much love for the Tauri, I though I have a great deal of respect for a species that has thus far fought and won many victories against the Gou'ald."

He paused and titled his head to one side thinking over his next remark. "You have an axiom: I believe the enemy of my enemy, is my friend.""

"That sounds about right," Doctor Daniel Jackson replied.

"Well, then, to the point. Our scientists have detected a massive buildup of energy approximately in the vicinity of the Crab Nebula."

"I'm sorry," Carter replied, interested despite her innate and well-established reservations about trusting any of the System Lords, unlike Colonel O'Neill, who believed anyone with a snake in their belly was an enemy, preferred to take a person on a case by case basis, warred with heir own scientific curiosity in the spatial phenomena. "What kind of energy?"

" It is a rare isotope, possibly temporal energy. In any case, the cause for concern is when more than several ships and their entire crew disappeared inside of the spatial tunnel created by the energy surge." The big sighed and reached up to brush away a strand of black hair that had fallen to dip across his eyes.

"Why come to us, with this information?" O'Neill asked.

"An extensive search of the area and the coordinates that those ships were on prior to their disappearance, turned up nothing but more perplexing questions."

"I am sorry for your loss." Hammond sighed, his headache was getting worse, and it certainly did not help for alien war-lords to come to him with a mystery of missing ships and crew. ⌠I don't understand what you felt it necessary to come to us."

"General, I felt it necessary, for one reason in particular," Chuculain sighed. "It is because, although none of our ships have emerged from that tunnel, other unknown and potentially hostile ships have come through, from the other side, of wherever it is that tunnel through space leads."

"An attack?"

"That was my estimate, yes," the big man nodded somberly.

"I think it's definitely worth checking out," Carter said.

Encounter and fight scene O'Neill had taken out the captured Gou'ald Death Glider up and out to the designated coordinates indicated on his onboard computer monitor. By this time he was not at all certain what he would find once he got there. Chuchlain was a pragmatic, ruthless, and at times annoying as hell man to deal with, but if nothing else could be said about him; he was no fool.

If he truly thought this particular tunnel through space presented a danger, he would not have come all the way to the Earth to warn them.

Jack leveled and reduced speed, making a check once more that two-way communication link between his ship and his team that he had left back on the planet PSX-1323 worked.

Looking up to glace out his view screen, it was as if someone had taken a huge hand over a blanket of ice-white stars painted on a canvas of inky black velvet and flattened with the palm of a huge hand. As a backdrop to the usual grand vista of space was a fleet, a fleet of warships if his experienced eye was a reliable gauge.

He saw at least a dozen starships whose configuration did not match up with anything in either the SG command database or the on-again, off-again allies, the Tok'ra.

The ships looked liked nothing so much as big, bulky freighters, only freighters bristling with weapons ports and sensors, and running lights. Jack O'Neill took a deep breath, and then said: "Carter, you read me?" O'Neill said into this communication pickup.

"Copy that, Sir." Carter's reply came through slightly muffled by the distance, but understandable.

"We've got a problem."

"Define the nature of the problem," Carter briskly replied.

"There is half a dozen starships up here, armed to the teeth, and they do not match anything encountered so far.  
I hope this is Thor's wacky idea of a practical joke. If it is, I forgot to laugh."

Carter gasped. "That would definitely qualify as a problem. Any idea whose they are?"

"None, and they don't look friendly. Wonder if old Chulclain was keeping back more than he knew?" O'Neill added,". I'm heading back,

On board the flagship of one of those unidentified ships, a big man, wearing a metal harness that served as armor stood with his legs braced on the deck of his bridge, gazing out of the unfamiliar yet eerily familiar vista of the Crab Nebula. It had a long time since he had gazed on it, and it held his attention.

Antony Paulinus was Nitezchean, a race born and bred to be conquerors, to rule, and if it came to it, to become the dominant species. Three hundred years ago in his own timeline, he and his crew had nearly won the Battle of Witch Head and had succeeded in toppling the larges and most powerful confederation of worlds and planets their universe had ever known, the Systems Commonwealth.

"That was fated, that was meant to be." He murmured under his breath, where his crew could not overhear him.

"If it had not been for the cursed accident, crippling his ship and leaving it stranded on the event horizon of a black dwarf star. ⌠Fate or something else had chosen to intervene, releasing his half a dozen ships, and his crew from their interminable prison and into this brave new world, to borrow a time-honored clichИ from Old Earth.

"Seems a shame to throw the gift of providence back in its face, no?" Antony remarked to his first officer.

"Indeed, Sir," the young man replied. "Let us see what is out there."

Continued in chapter 5: Snake Oil


	5. Snake Oil

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corporation, MGM Studios, etc, as do all o the characters mentioned or who appear here; they are not mine. Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions; it is not mine. Notes: The story picks up shortly after where "Hail the Conquering Hero" left off.

"Snake Oil" by Karen

In the conference room at the Cheyenne Mountain Base a holographic computer representation of the unknown alien fleet held the attention of the SG-1 team members, with the addition of Dr. Janet Fraiser, General Hammond, and several other uniformed air force officers and assembled civilians.

Lying flat in front of each of them where slim blue envelopes with the United States logo containing documents that contained gathered information of both the ship's estimated numbers, weapons capability, and projected targets. That they were hostile was a foregone conclusion.

Hammond stood up and walked over to the computer model projection. "As you can see here," he said pointing to a portion of the model that indicated the ship's positions and heading.

"At the rate they're going we figure that they will reach Earth in a little less than seventy two hours and forty minutes. I've been in contact with the Tok'ra and the Asgard. Neither of them have any idea of where these newcomers are from."

"I'm more worried about where they're going, then where they're from," Doctor Daniel Jackson said.

"Could Thor know more about them then he's willing to let on?" Colonel Jack O'Neill asked.

"Indeed," Teal'C said as he raised one black eyebrow and darted significant glances around at all those assembled at the conference table.

"It wouldn't be the first time. After all, he did hold out on us about the Replicators until it was almost too late for us to do anything about them."

"It's a probable, but not a likely possibility, Jack," Doctor Daniel Jackson. "And I think Thor might be more forthcoming now."

"Sir," Major Samantha Carter said. "I've gone over the systems readings from Colonel O'Neill's ship and those of the others. While I doubt any of us in this room have ever seen ships like these before."

"It's hardly a significant invasion fleet, a little over a dozen all told," said O'Neill with a disparaging sniff.

"As I was saying," Carter added. "I've come across a rather strange energy readings, while the origins of the ships and their crew are unknown at this time they do share one thing in common with ours."

"Which is?" Jack prompted.

"A significant amount of chronotron particles and it's growing by the nanosecond," replied Carter.

"Chronotron particles, is it dangerous?" Dr. Janet Fraiser asked.

"Yes and no. By itself, no, but prolonged exposure, it could be a definite problem."

Judging by the readings the computer registered before leaving the area where they were

initially sighted, that entire region of space is flooded with chronotron radiation particles."

"Are you saying," Daniel took a deep breath. "That these guys came from another time?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, or perhaps more accurately, without further evidence to back it up, another universe." Sam replied.

"Great, just great. Why couldn't they have stayed in their own time, and stayed out of ours? Jack griped.

"Prolonged exposure to such temporal radiation could result in massive cellular decay," Doctor Fraiser added.

"It's an intriguing theory, Doctor Fraiser, and one that we should explore in more detail at a later date," Hammond replied. "At the moment we need to deal with the matter at hand."

"What plans are being made to repel the invaders," asked one of the uniformed air force officers.

"The first step is of course, is to hope that we can negotiate with them," Hammond replied. "If that fails, we are prepared to defend ourselves. We can't match them ship for ship, we simply don't have the resources."

"Who knows, maybe the System Lords will find out, intercept the newbies, and do us a favor, by getting rid of them for us," Jack muttered. "It's entirely within the realm of possibility, right, Daniel?

"Jack," Daniel sighed. "Get real. If you recall Cuchlain already came to tell us about the

problem. If they were going to do something about it, they would have done it by now."

"We have three days to figure a counter-attack plan, but it might be we'll have to wait for our next move. At this point I've yet to contact the White House on the matter." Hammond said.

"I think it's best that they we handle this ourselves, until further notice, with all due respect, Sir," Jack added.

"Agreed," Hammond replied.

Elsewhere aboard Antony Paulinius flagship with the remainder of his fleet flanking him in a roughly fan-shaped formation, he stood behind his helmsman, his booted feet firmly planted on the rocking command deck, hands laced behind his back.

Judging by the faint smirk on his face, seemed to find things very well in hand. If the fact that the stellar clusters and planets that they passed looked almost like the ones that they had left behind in their home universe, but with significant difference.

Thus far they had not found any one to take on in a battle, and his crew was itching for a fight. Added to the fact that his engineer's had informed him that their slipstream drive did not work in this galaxy concerned him; it did not show on his face.

"I am beginning to think that this galaxy is a very dull place," remarked Antony.

"It cannot be any duller than being trapped in an temporal hiatus, Sir."

"No doubt, but still, seeing a little action would be welcome."

Interlude

In the between spaces that occupy a great deal of her time and her thoughts Trance Gemini, the purple incarnation, not her gold mature self, pondered. She is very careful to make that distinction now.

It felt as if she were straddling two dimensions. As in point of fact, she is. It is an uncomfortable sensation, but one she had instinctively always known that she would one day fill.

'Make of that what you will', Trance ruefully thought in the privacy of her own mind. If she had believed in a higher power, in a divine will like her friend and former shipmate, Rev Bem believed in the Divine.

"It is like air; it is like water." Trance was reminded then of an old Earth poem, but couldn't summon the entire verse only a few snatches of a stanza or two. 'A certain recluse once said, that no bonds attached him to this life and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky."

Her sky at the moment is quite overcast and grey. Looking out at the view screen at the moving star field that the Andromeda Ascendant glides through Trance wondered if she could have done more to prevent the temporal tunnel from opening. If so, if it was not too late to correct that particular oversight.

After all as much as a anachronistic anomaly as Captain Dylan Hunt was in this time, the wayward Nitzecheans released from the temporal tunnel into another alternate dimension would a bad idea by anyone's estimation. In the silence of her own mind, Trance, sent a message to her their friends in that alternate universe, "Good luck, my friends, you are going to need it."

Encounter

Almost three days later on the dot the small but menacing-looking fleet of warships appeared in Earth orbit. So far the SG had managed to keep those who knew about it to a minimum and from leaking out to the news media, in order to prevent a panic. Hammond had been in constant contact with the United States president and received his go ahead to proceed with the plan of action formulated only late yesterday evening.

A laser mounted canon perched atop the Cheyenne Mountain summit would serve as the first line of defense if and when initial peaceful negotiations failed to turn the intruders away.

So far neither friendly species such as the Tok'ra or even the hostile races, primarily the Goa'uald, had come forward with more information as to either the newcomers identities or motives; and to Jack O'Neill's way of thinking that boded ominous.

As he stood on the summit of the mountain just across from the entrance to the bulk of the underground base, Jack thought that it was the waiting that he hated most of all, not the unknown that was the hardest; waiting for them to make their move.

"Sir, would you please stop fidgeting," Major Carter whispered out of the side of her mouth. "The plan will work."

"How certain are you that it will, Major?" asked Jack.

"I am reasonably certain as I can be, Sir, under the circumstances," Carter replied. "Now, with all due respect, please stop hovering over my shoulder?"

"Sure, not a problem," Jack replied walking off to the edge of the summit where he got the attention of one the air men assigned to guard duty and asked for long-range telescope.

The young man with only a slight blush to give away his nervousness handed the device over. Jack thanked the other with a nod and put it up to his eye to look out at the star-sprinkled night sky.

"So where are they?"

With a groan and a roar Jack received his answer to his question much sooner than expected. For the moment his field of vision was completely engulfed in a white hot stream of heat and light. When he could see again his surroundings had elongated and flattened out, much like the matte black patterns he was suddenly reminded of, taking him back to memories of art class projects from his Boy Scout days.

Jack dropped the telescope and glanced around to check on the others gathered on the summit of the mountain, to ascertain if they too had had a similar experience, and if so, if they were all right.

"Jack!" he heard Major Carter yelling, "Colonel, Sir! Can you hear me? Are you all right?"

He pivoted around on his hell and saw that Major Carter accompanied by Teal'C and Doctor Jackson were hovering over him with equally worried and annoyed expressions on their faces. For some reason that contrast amused him and allowed a small, grim smile to slip out. "Yeah, I'm fine. It seems we have some unexpected visitors knocking on our door. Let's go and greet them, shall we?"

Carter dropped his hand and stood up. "He'll be fine."

Fight Scene

Antony Paulinius had considered attacking the planet from low orbit, but considering

It did take him aback for the better part of five minutes to note just how woefully inadequate the planet's defenses were compared to his small attack fleet.

If it struck him as odd the technology level of the Earth-like planet worried him, he attributed it to nothing but the law of averages catching up.

In the mind of his aide, however, the facts and events of their arrival in this universe did not add up. However, familiar with his commander's ways and way of thinking it would have been as much as committing suicide to bring it to Antony Paulinuis' attention.

Antony may not have killed him outright, but the older man could have made his life a living nightmare. Nietzcheans were not known for them forbearance when it came to matters of battle and protocol. The rules were strict and unforgiving.

Meanwhile Hammond came up through the mountain's winding stairs, accompanied by the man that Jack O'Neill would very much never to have to lay eyes on ever again, Senator Kinsey.

"What's he doing here?"

"He's here at the President's explicit request," Hammond sighed. "I couldn't do anything about it. If nothing else he's here strictly in an observation capacity."

"How you handle this situation, General Hammond, might carry a lot of weight in Washington as far as extending funding for your little war-games," Kinsey replied.

"They're hardly 'games', Senator." Hammond replied. Turning to address Major Carter he asked. "Is the cannon ready to go, Major?"

"Primed and ready, on your order, Sir," she replied.

"We're assuming our 'friends' up there,' Kinsey stretched out an arm and waved at a random point in the Colorado night sky, "will launch an orbital attack, am I right?"

"Yes," Hammond replied.

At that very instant further debate on the matter was cut short but the sound of laser fire and the hiss of pneumatic hatch being opened.

A ground ship arrived its engines roaring as it came to a sputtering but precise landing on the mountain's summit. To Hammond's way of thinking it was getting awfully crowded up here.

SG-1 and the other team members as well as the guards were all armed and prepared for just about anything.

The attackers were large, heavily armed and fierce-looking, they were also remarkably human-looking, but then after several years of commanding the SGC that should hardly come as a surprise to him anymore.

The leader stepped forward, a tall sandy-haired man, followed by a contingent of approximately sixty men. "Well, well," he chuckled. "I certainly did not expect a welcoming party, but I would hate to be a rude guest, and not take advantage of the opportunity presented to me."

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Jack.

"Where are my manners today," the big man murmured. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Antony Paulinuis, of the Sabra Jaguar Pride, and commander of the Lost Fleet late of the Battle of Witch Head Nebular. We've come to destroy you and take your planet for ourselves."

"I hate this guy, already," Jack muttered under his breath.

"You don't suffer from overconfidence or anything, do you?" Daniel asked.

"He does, but he shall even more at the hands of Teal'C."

"Well, that's torn it," Carter muttered. "There was a better than even chance we could have negotiated with him. For all Antony's stuffy pomposity; he seems like a reasonable man." In the back of her mind Sam also thought, 'here's a real charmer and he's damn gorgeous, but I figure he's the type who knows just how physically attractive he is, and never lets one forget it. Focus, Carter, Focus.'

"Teal'c, wait! Don't rush off…."Jack yelled, but either the former Jaffa warrior did not hear him over the confused sounds atop the mountain's summit or he simply chose not to hear him. Either way, the fight had begun in earnest.

As laser fire began to criss-cross across the rocky face of the summit, members of both sides had been forced to dodge, weave and alternately take cover. At first Major Carter had been reluctant to leave her post beside the laser cannon, however, with some coaxing and tugging on her uniformed sleeve, Jack convinced her to move away from it.

Meanwhile, Teal'c had squared off with the big sandy-haired man who called Antony. They traded blows and for at lest the first few opening rounds discovered that not only were they evenly matched, but each was something unique in a fighter.

Antony debated on wether or not to employ his Nietzchean bone blades, but the big man dark-skinned fighter was holding his own and it seemed somehow less than sporting to play his ace in the hole, to borrow an Old-Earth cliché so early on in the battle.

Screams and clouds of dust filled the night time air, along with mingled shouts of the combantants in either pain or anger. In the distant Antony noted when one of his men fell, or in a few rare cases tumbled headlong down and down to the mountain's base.

In what could have days later, as it was only hours later, he realized that these particular humans were something different and quite unalike the ones had had known and enslaved in his own universe; they were determined, brave and willingly to give everything to protect themselves and their world.

At the top of his genetically-engineered lungs Antony called out to the defenders. "I hereby, call an end to the hositilies. There will be no more war here today. You have won Antony Paulinius's respect."

"I speak not only for myself and my people here," Hammond said as he stepped forward.

"That we accept your offer."

Aftermath

"Why did they know to attack here?" asked Daniel. "It's not likely any of our galactic neighbors would have tipped them off about our operations here on Earth."

"My guess is this their ship's sensors must have locked onto the largest concentration of energy as a likely target, figuring that it would cripple the planet's population in the process." Carter sighed. "All the same, I think they were getting desperate."

"What do you mean?" Teal'C asked. He had fought one of the so-called Nietzcheans in hand-to-hand combat, and he had not been impressed. At the moment, they occupied cells in the mountain's many holding areas.

"Janet, do you want to field this one?" Carter asked.

"Of course, thank you." Dr. Frasier turned to look at everyone assembled around the table. "Facts and events have borne out that our 'visitors' were in fact alien, genetically engineered aliens from an alternate universe."

"What they were uh 'designed" for?" gulped Daniel who was not entirely certain he wanted to know the answer to that particular question but his native curiosity got in the way of his better judgment.

"Combat, and for some reason I haven't yet discovered," Dr. Fraiser sighed. "breeding."

"Sure, it makes sense, in its own odd and wacky fashion, Jack added. "Where else are you gonna get more little soldiers from?"

"Jack, please," Hammond chided.

"As far as I'm concerned, good riddance to bad rubbish," Jack griped. "Those Nietzscheism had some nerve, busting over into our universe and then launching an attack on Earth."

"I'm sure certain members of the White House Senate would agree with you on the zero tolerance policy on immigration, O'Neill." General Hammond replied.

"Don't start with me, Daniel."

"There's one thing I don't get," Daniel said.

"Which is?" Jack asked with a sigh.

"Why anyone would go to all the trouble of creating genetically engineered warriors and then leaving them for so long in what effectively was a temporal hiatus."

"Major Carter, I'm sure that's something we'll never know," Hammond shook his head and scratched his chin. "But if anyone does figure out an answer to that puzzle I am certain that it will be you."

"You give me too much credit, Sir."

Conclusion

"We could use the gravitational force to slingshot around the sun and send the Nietzcheans back to their own time and universe."

"Barring that we can't hold them indefinitely, there's always the option of sending them through the gate to the Beta site," Hammond said.

"In the meantime, Dr. Fraiser work with Major Carter on exploring the other option of recreating the time tunnel." He sighed. "Preferably without endangering anyone here or in any of our neighbors."

"Understood, Sir," Carter sighed.

Elsewhere, a purple-skinned girl watered her plants and smiled, from the calm expression on her face, she seemed to find things well in hand.


End file.
